Burgos, Diocese of

BURGOS, Diocese of. - In Old Castile (Spain). Once the Greek or Roman origin of the city of B. has been dismissed as unfounded, one must accept its foundation, and therefore that of its church, as having taken place immediately after the expulsion of the Saracens from that region, that is, two years after the victory of Pancorvo (882), won by Count Diego Rodriguez under the banner of King Alfonso III of Asturias. The city and its territory were ecclesiastically subject during the first ninety years to the diocese, now defunct, of Valpuesta, united for some centuries with the older one of Auca or Oca, destroyed along with the city during the Arab domination. When the Valpuesta see ceased in 1052, having been aggregated to that of Nájera (residence of the prelate of Calahorra, during the Moorish dominion over that city), the documents belonging to the Burgos territory speak only of the revived diocese of Oca and sometimes of that of B., whose bishop, however, did not reside in the capital until 1074, although the diocese had already been established almost a century earlier. After the death of the last bishop of Oca, named Nunio (ca. 1079), the diocese was governed by the prelate of B., who soon rose to great importance. The claims of the latter were contested by the metropolitan of Toledo, who wanted the new diocese to declare itself his suffragan in defiance of Tarragona, to which the ancient bishop of Oca had been subject. But Pope Urban II in 1097 closed the controversy by granting that the see of B. should be immediately under the jurisdiction of the Holy See, and so it remained as a simple diocese until Gregory XIII, at the request of King Philip II, raised it in 1574 to the archiepiscopal dignity, which it retains today with the suffragans of Palencia, León, Santander, Calahorra, Burgo de Osma and Vitoria. Several important provincial councils were held at B., in which affairs of the whole kingdom were discussed. The first was held in 1085 under the presidency of Card. Richard, sent there by Pope St. Gregory VII at the request of King Alfonso VI for the introduction of the Roman liturgy into the kingdom, the Visigothic or Mozarabic liturgy still being in force. Another council was celebrated at B. in the year 1136, presided over by Card. Guido on the occasion of the discord between the first archbishop of St. James of Compostela and King Alfonso VII, called emperor, and it was an almost national council, since bishops of León, Castile and Galicia took part in it. A third council, also important, was held there in 1379 with the aim of resolving the capital question of the Western Schism; it seems, however, that despite the inclination of the King of Castile John I to recognize the pope of Avignon, a position of neutrality was decided upon. Among the bishops of B. mention should be made of Maurice, the founder, together with King St. Ferdinand in 1221, of the admirable cathedral church; Lodovico Acuña Ossorio (d. 1495), to whom the cloister of the same cathedral is due; Giovanni Alvarez of Toledo, who built the great transept of the same church; the writers Paulo of St. Mary, Alfonso of St. Mary, or of Cartagena, Giuseppe Rodriguez de Fonseca; the cardinals I. López de Mendoza, J. Alvarez de Toledo, F. de Mendoza y Bobadilla, F. Pacheco de Toledo, A. Zapata, F. de la Fuente, G. Aguirre, and J. Benlloch (d. 1926), founder of the Seminary of Foreign Missions.

In the diocese the two ancient Benedictine abbeys of Oña and of Silos have had great historical importance (S. Ruiz, s. v. in DHG, X, coll. 1308-51; Cottineau, II, coll. 2130-31 and 3036-37).

In the archive of the Cathedral there is an 11th-century manuscript of the Gospels; a 15th-century Chronicon; a copy of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, the collection known as the «libros Redondos» of 1352.

The archdiocese has an area of 14,210 sq. km. with 1089 parishes, 518 secular priests and 160 regulars. The inhabitants number 535,964.

ART

While the remains of the first cathedral, built in 1075 by order of Alfonso VI, are scanty, the most remarkable building is the present Cathedral with a Latin cross plan, which is among the most conspicuous examples of Gothic art and was the first of its kind built in Spain. Begun in 1221, it was completed in the 15th century; the imposing facade with three orders, the work of John of Cologne (1442-58), is adorned with two highly perforated towers and with the dome begun in 1539 on a design by Felipe de Vigarni et Bergoñón but completed (1567) by Juan de Vallejo. Notable are the doors of the Coroneria and of the Sacramental at the ends of the transept, with 13th-century sculptures, and that of the Pellejeria in the Plateresque style; inside, especially worthy of note are: the choir with magnificent carvings by Vigarnis, and the tomb of Bishop Maurizio in copper and Limoges enamels; the chapel with the tombs of the Constable Pedro Fernández de Velasco and his wife, the chapel of St. Anne by Simon of Cologne with the tomb of Bishop Acuña, the work of de Silos; the chapel of the Presentation with a Madonna by Sebastiano del Piombo; the chapel of the "Corpus Christi" where the chest of the Cid is kept; the adjoining cloister is from the 14th century.

Also notable are the Gothic churches of Sts. Cosmas and Damian (13th century), of St. Stephen (1280-1350; remarkable are the choir, the pulpit and the tomb of Juan García de Castro) and St. Giles, which dates back to the same period, that of St. Lesmes (1380), of St. Nicholas of Bari (15th century) with a marble altar by Francesco of Cologne and one from the school of Navarre (15th century), of St. Gadea and of St. Giles, which has two paintings by Mengs.

Civil architecture is characterized by the town hall and the episcopal palace, by the arches of St. Stephen and St. Martin from the period of Arab domination, and by the triumphal arch in honor of Fernando Gonzales, first count of Castile, to whom belonged the castle that was also the residence of the kings of Castile; typical are the ancient Gothic-Renaissance houses of the Cordón (1482), of Miranda (1543; with the most elegant "patio" in Burgos), of Inigo Angulo (2nd half of the 18th century).

Two kilometers from the city are Las Huelgas, transformed in 1187 by Alfonso VIII into a monastery, whose church (1249) encloses sarcophagi of kings and knights, and the charterhouse of Miraflores (2nd half of the 15th century), a Gothic-Renaissance work by John and Simon of Cologne, notable also for the richest mausoleum in Spain, the work of de Siloe, for John II and Isabella of Portugal. - See Pl. XVIII.

Fabia Borroni